Internet, mobile firms caught in crossfire

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Internet, mobile firms caught in crossfire

With hundreds of seemingly identical cellular phones and intense competition between cell-phone service providers, consumers find it hard to distinguish one service or product from another. Trying to offer unique services for customers, leading phone makers and service providers have wound up stepping on each other’s toes. Such is the case for Samsung Electronics Co., an electronics maker, and SK Telecom Co., a service provider. Samsung, for instance, recently released a cellular phone model, “Blue Black II,” equipped with an artificial intelligence program that allows the phone owner to raise a digital pet. The service, however, is remarkably similar to the contents service “1 mm” that Korea’s largest mobile carrier, SK Telecom, unveiled last year. The SK service allows subscribers to have conversations with artificial characters saved on their mobile phones. “It’s gotten hard to garner a consistent consumer response only by selling mobile phones,” a Samsung spokesman said. “The ‘simulated pet’ service was based on the idea that mobile-phone makers can attract more consumers by offering a wide range of content on handsets.” SK Telecom, on the other hand, is trying to boost its revenue by grabbing the attention of Internet users. It launched a service enabling its subscribers to log on to the nation’s most popular cyberspace community “Cyworld,” upload pictures and write and check Web posts by using a wireless mobile Internet connection. The service, “Mobile Cyworld,” attracted 1.3 million members last year, reaping 50 billion won ($51 million). SK also signed a contract with Korea’s second-largest portal, Daum Communications Corp., to allow subscribers to join online communities on “Daum Cafe,” a cell-phone-service version of the community pages hosted by the Web portal. “Wireless Internet connections over mobile phones has so far lacked a community feature for cell phone subscribers,” said Kim Hye-jin, SK spokeswoman. “That’s why we created ‘Daum Cafe’.” Daum can hardly be happy, however, that SK has also formed an alliance with Korea’s largest portal, Naver, as well as with rival phone service operators KTF Co. and LG Telecom Inc. The deal allows cell-phone subscribers to log on to Naver and surf the Internet using their mobile phones. “The majority of Internet users in Korea are also mobile phone customers,” said Chae Seon-joo, a spokeswoman for NHN. “The service is meant to boost Naver’s recognition among mobile phone subscribers.” Customers’ desire for a mobile telecommunications medium with Internet access is breaking down boundaries between leading IT firms, said Kim Jae-yoon, a senior research fellow at the Samsung Economic Research Institute. by Hong Joo-yun
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